Students protest Sean Spicer campus talk: ‘makes me really scared’

September 12, 2019

COLLEGE FIX– Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer is scheduled to speak at Northeastern Illinois University today, a visit that is prompting outrage as students say they feel unsafe, and both students and faculty organize a protest and host an alternative teach in.

Spicer, who served under President Donald Trump, is set to speak about about the upcoming presidential election alongside former chair of the Democratic National Committee, Donna Brazile, for the “Politics, Press, and the Presidential Election” panel.

Members of a Facebook group called “Rally to Stop Sean Spicer at NEIU” plan to hold a protest to show public opposition to the former press secretary’s presence. They describe themselves as a coalition of students, faculty, staff and alumni.

“NEIU should not provide a home for white nationalism and other forms of bigotry,” the group states. “As members of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, as queer people, trans and non-binary people, and women, as undocumented students, and as allies to all of these oppressed groups, we wish to explicitly express our fear in the face of the escalating right-wing violence in this country and around the world. We see the policies and rhetoric of the Trump administration—including the role Spicer took early in this administration—as drivers of this violence.” READ MORE